§ Upon which sir Arthur Wellesley said,
§ "Mr. Speaker; I beg leave to express my acknowledgements to the house for the high honour which they have conferred upon me, by the notice which they have taken, and the approbation they have conveyed of my conduct during the time I commanded his majesty's troops in Portugal.— No man can value more highly than I do the honourable distinction which has been conferred upon me: a distinction which it is in the power of the representatives of a free people alone to bestow, and which it is the peculiar advantage of the officers and soldiers in the service of his majesty to have held out to them as the object of their ambition, and to receive as the reward of their services.— I beg leave, at the same time, to return you, sir, my thanks for the handsome terms in which your kindness, I ought to say your partiality for me, has induced you to convey the approbation of the house."
Ordered, nem. con. That what has been now said by Mr. Speaker, in giving the Thanks of this house to lieut. gen. sir A. Wellesley, together with his Answer thereto, be printed in the Votes of this day.